Netflix knows people don’t take its movies seriously. The streaming giant has earned a reputation for taking projects that other studios have passed on or were too nervous to bring to theaters. But they are determined to change the perception of Netflix original films. And to start things off, the streaming service will push for more blockbusters and prestige flicks.

Over a decade ago, talk of a Gears of War movie started. Ever since its announcement, some notable writers have come and gone from the project. Chris Morgan (The Fast and the Furious franchise), Stuart Beattie (Collateral), and Billy Ray (Shattered Glass) all took cracks at the video game adaptation. With the project alive again, and this time at Universal, a new writer has been tapped to adapt the property: Shane Salerno, who co-wrote the Avatar sequels, Armageddon, and Savages.

Just as Bill Adama refused to give up on humanity, even after countless Cylon attacks and supply outages and political disputes, Hollywood is not giving up on the notion of a Battlestar Galactica movie, no matter how many false starts they’ve had in the past. The latest team to attempt to try and maneuver this big old spaceship to the big screen will be Michael De Luca and Scott Stuber, who are producing for Universal. Read More »

After years of development, the video game series Gears of War may finally make the leap to the big screen. The series originated by Epic Games and published by Microsoft for the Xbox 360 and PC, tells one part of a long conflict between humans and aliens called the Locust Horde. Set on the fictional planet Sera, the story features a conflict over energy, long family histories, and plenty of big notes of loyalty, betrayal, and plenty of military conflict.

Gears was originally in development in 2007, but never went very far, thanks to disagreements between Epic and New Line over how to bring the story to the screen. The rights went back to Epic at one point, and the company has been slowly feeling out producers as possible partners.

Now producer Scott Stuber (Ted, Identity Thief, Safe House) has won the rights, and will develop a film alongside Epic. Read More »

It’s fairly common in horror films for haunted families to call on a priest to help fight the forces of evil, and the poor guys often don’t meet such a great end. So perhaps it was just a matter of time before cinematic clergymen started taking matters into their own hands and bringing the fight to the monsters. That more or less seems to be the premise of Arcana / Benderspink’s graphic novel The Order, which has just been optioned for film by Scott Stuber‘s Bluegrass Films. More after the jump.